[ian-reeds-games] Re: Greetings
- From: Ian Reed <support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ian-reeds-games@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2012 19:11:28 -0700
Greetings all!
This is a long email so here we go!
Kai, so glad you joined us. I still have a list of things you requested
ages ago. Sorry for my long absence from making releases.
I'm back now though, and between work and family we'll keep the game
moving forward.
Allan, the randomness is a good idea and your email about it has some
very good ideas.
I'm not sure when I'll get to randomness, but I've kept your email as a
reference for when I go back so I can review the ideas again.
One thing I may get to soon is doing a chance_of= flag for skills that
let's you specify a percentage chance of that skill succeeding.
As you've pointed out there are so many more things that need to have
this sort of randomness such as dodges or a sort of saving throws and
especially in a role playing game scenario things like the chest that
needs a certain skill to open it that is based off the character's
attributes.
I think it's a tricky thing to implement but it's definitely something I
want to do, and as you say I want to keep it very customizable just how
the new point system and damage types are.
And be sure to allow a good way to avoid it if wanted, just as we have a
default damage type to reduce verbosity when specifying damage everywhere.
As with all the things I'm trying to do on the game it should ultimately
be the map creators choice so Austen can keep his maps doing consistent
damage and you can have loads of randomness in yours.
Carlos also asked for this feature a while back, unfortunately I've
misplaced his For Ian Reed.txt file that had the suggestion and it is
not in the most recent map pack.
Carlos, if you can post your thoughts as well that would be appreciated.
I especially liked your system for doing dice such as health_inflict=2d6
because although dice are not my favorite form of randomness there are
so many pen and paper gamers who are used to that system.
Additionally having damage that does 2d6 is different than having a
single random number between 2 and 12.
We can see this in gambling where 7 is the most common roll when rolling
2 dice because there are so many more ways for 2 dice to add up to 7
than the other possibilities.
I think the straight up percentage chance works well for success or
failure rolls though, but damage should have the option of dice rolls.
Austen, that's great news on your Santa's mad maps! I think you should
post them in the audiogames.net forum as I probably won't get another
release out before Christmas.
It is great that the map packs are set up so that they really don't need
to be released with the game but can be released on their own at any time.
Allan, thanks for reminding me about Clement. I was not ignoring him,
just waiting till I was home and could properly respond to his email.
Here is my response to the multiplayer portion of his email:
Multiplayer is not planned for the near term but it is on my list for
long term.
Besides the challenging code needed for making it multiplayer there are
still a number of questions to be answered about how multiplayer would work.
Because it is a turn based strategy game each player would need a good
amount of time to perform their turn.
But how much time is too much? Should there be a timer to make the
player's turn automatically end after 1 or 2 or 3 minutes?
Should I include a text chat feature or would this be too disturbing
during your turn?
Chatting can always be handled via skype if the players know each other.
Another option is to make it more like playing chess through email,
where each player can take their turn and next time they want to open
the game it can check with the server to see if it's their turn again.
This would give each player as much time as they wanted for their turn
but would make games potentially take a very long time to complete.
Perhaps a hybrid where you can play real time and the game would notify
you when it's your turn again, or you can close the game and open it
later and continue your turn. Then the speed of the game is up to the
players and hopefully they know each other and are having communication
outside the game to make sure they finish in a timely fashion.
I do have my doubts about how much players would enjoy a turn based
multiplayer game as compared with real time games.
In a mud or Aprone's swamp for instance everything is real time and so
players are constantly participating in their own way. I think many
people would not have the patience to wait for their opponent to finish
their turn.
Clement responded with some good points and I responded again. Hopefully
he will join the mailing list so that everyone can benefit from his
ideas and share their 2 cents as well.
Thanks to everyone for the good ideas and support for the game!
Ian Reed
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